Similarities in a far away land

Sunday likes to law down the law. Before our country director begins a training session in the villages where we may install a water point, he asks the community for rules of the session. He likes to keep the sessions participatory and the rules give the villagers a sense that they also help set the agenda.

It was a slow process at Amoninonu Village this morning. My mind wandered as I checked out the surroundings -- over 100 of us sat in the center of the village under the shade of an oak tree (Ok, it wasn’t an oak, but I know little African flora). A slight breeze blew caused our flip chart papers to flutter about, making it difficult for Sunday to write the suggestions down.

A chicken with a purple string tied around its leg clucked through the space separating Sunday and the adult villagers, who were attentively watching. Elementary school students in sun bleached, but yet still dirt tinged pink and blue tattered uniforms , checked out the curiosities of a morning large meeting and the white man in an over sized sun hat from a distance.

It was rural. It was remote. But it was yet, still so connected. And it wasn't just the satellite drilled into a mud-brick building.

Some of the basic rules that Sunday wrote down could have come from sessions in the states. My translator told them to me: respect for others views, no interrupting. The rules continued and focused more on personal responsibility: no smoking and no drinking of alcohol during the sessions. It was oddly comforting to hear rules with which I was familiar, albeit not always so explicit. As my eyes caught the large horn cow passing by, my translator leaned over and whispered and all too familiar rule, “turn your mobile phones to vibrate.”

What?

Not only have mobile phones penetrated, so have apparent bad manners. Now, I must say, not everyone has cell phones, I only saw a few. And those with them were proud to show them off. But apparently the rings are a distraction.

When I related the story to a western colleague who has spent some time in country, she was dumbfounded. She couldn’t believe that the villagers would have thought of such a rule because in Uganda it seemed to her that one is almost expected to answer a cell phone call regardless of where one is. However, I was surprised about the rule too. After all, I wouldn’t think we would discuss cell phone etiquette in a village without fresh water.